Diana Greer, founder of Collective Hug, with donated ingredients to be cooked up and turned into frozen meals and fresh baking for rural communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The Greer family kitchen is headquarters to a group of volunteers who are no strangers to dealing with hard times in rural communities.
The Collective Hug, sparked by Hawkes Bay's 2020 drought, is on fire again, - its members cooking and stockpiling meals for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Founder Diana Greer says people on remote damaged farms and in small cut-off communities will need to be sustained during the tiring months ahead.
She has 14 coordinators in place from Pongaroa in Wairarapa up to just south of Wairoa.
They will help organise donations, cooking rosters and deliveries.
"I called it the Collective Hug because that's exactly what it felt like.
"We're going to be the little fairies that turn up with smoko."
Ingredients are being dropped off by the sack load and they'll be turned into meals over the next few months.
Greer said people have messaged her saying 'tell us where to come, we'll be there to help.'
"These rural folk they work really hard .. it's really physical... these men can eat, and the women, they really know how to eat. They need sustaining and this is the best way to do it."
Delivering to cut-off communities won't be a barrier. Greer said they planned to use their connections - relatives and friends with light planes who can fly food in to places where roads and bridges are damaged.
"We'll carry on for as long as it's needed and I just think it's going to carry on for a lot longer than most people think.
"It's the loss, the devastation, the feeling of it being so futile."
"Everyone will pull in together. It's a very rural thing."
